Review Blog

Mar 26 2012

I love Easter by Anna Walker

Scholastic Australia, 2012. ISBN: 9781741696448.
(Age: 3-6) Hard cover. Picture book. Ollie (the curious Zebra) and
the irrepressible Fred (the dog) are back in another seasonal
adventure. I Love Easter explores the Western cultural norms
of Easter. Ollie and Fred visit an Easter fair, make a hat for the
Easter Hat parade, watch chicks and ducks, and hunt for eggs.
Using pen and ink illustrations with plenty of white space, Anna
Walker again shows her talent as both an author and illustrator in
this recommended book for children age 2 to 6. By writing in a
predictable and rhyme filled fashion across all her books, Walker
makes her work accessible and inspiring time and time again.
Young readers will delight in the familiarity of the writing style
and illustrations, with a range of other books by Walker covering
people and events such as Christmas, Birthdays, Grandmothers, Dads,
Mums, Dancing, and Singing.
The books are ideal read alouds for the preschool set, but are also
highly useful for new readers, with a familiar set of characters and
a predictable writing format. All too often, finding books with
authentic yet accessible text is challenging, but Walker's
presentation of the lovely and welcoming Ollie achieves just this.
Many of Walker's books, I Love Easter included, feature
sight words with which many young readers are familiar, and the
pictures correlate with the text, enhancing the use of reading cues.
Moving beyond the books themselves, the I Love series
provides a natural opportunity for extension, inspiring readers to
create I love books of their own. A well timed and enjoyable Easter
read.
Freya Lucas